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Nowadays, there are some married men who are priests: Episcopal priests who converted to Catholicism , as shown in the book Keeping the Vow: The Untold Story of Married Catholic Priests , which features interviews with 72 married priests and their wives. Despite the Catholic Church’s longstanding prohibition on married men becoming priests, Pope Francis said he might consider making exceptions to ordain married men who are already heavily involved in the Roman Catholic Church in certain circumstances. But why were married men prevented from becoming priests in the first place? The Pope’s feelings on married priests aren’t likely to apply to expanding ordination to include women, however, for he told reporters in November 2016 that the church’s restriction on female priests will likely remain in place indefinitely. “[We] must determine what tasks they can perform, for example, in remote communities,” he said, according to the Associated Press .

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BERLIN — Pope Francis says the church must study whether it’s possible to allow married men to perform priestly duties in remote communities facing priest shortages. In the interview, Francis also confirmed Colombia was on his travel itinerary for 2017, as well as India and Bangladesh. Pope Francis at the Vatican on March 1, 2017. But he expressed an openness to studying whether so-called “viri probati” — or married men of proven faith — could do some of the jobs of a fully ordained priest. “We must consider if viri probati is a possibility.

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Pope Francis Willing to Allow Married Men to Become Priests Amid Clergy Shortage

There are also a few hundred former Protestant ministers in the U.S., who’ve entered the Catholic Church as married men and permitted to remain married after being ordained as Catholic priests. Crux notes that most Catholic priests are expected to remain celibate, although Catholicism does include 23 Eastern churches in full communion with Rome whose clergy are allowed to marry. He further asked that the discussion on married priests be faced “fearlessly.” “Working at a church and working regularly with the priest I see that we don’t have as many priests. The shortage, he said, weakens the Church “because a Church without the Eucharist doesn’t have strength — the Church makes the Eucharist, but the Eucharist also makes the Church.”